The Black sheep and the shepherd

I first heard that question when I was a little boy running around different housing projects in Atlanta, GA.

As I grew older, I began to investigate sheep. I learned that Black sheep were unique. Black sheep were different. And, Black sheep were somewhat special.

The Black sheep in the fold would usually get along with the other sheep. All of the sheep, regardless of their wool color and their pigmentation, loved their shepherd.

The shepherd had a lot of responsibilities and one thing he was supposed to do was to look after the sheep.

Oftentimes, a flock of sheep had two or three devilish sheep. The bad sheep would mistreat some of the sheep. The bad sheep would discriminate against some of the sheep. The slimy, degenerate satanic sheep would even hate some of the sheep in the flock.

And, which sheep were treated the worst, victimized the most and got the greatest amount of hate? You got it, the little Black sheep!

The bad sheep wanted to control every other sheep from birth to lamb to adult sheep.

The sheep that complained were ostracized. The sheep that spoke up a-bout mistreatment were shunned. The sheep that attempted to stand up on their own four feet were disparaged!

But the strong Black sheep were not going to be controlled by the bad sheep. All good sheep followed the instructions of the shepherd. They grazed where they were supposed to graze. They drank from the watering hole they were supposed to drink from. They believed in the shepherd.

The smart Black sheep knew it was useless to suck up to the devilish sheep. The smart Black sheep knew no matter how much they claimed to love the bad sheep, no matter how much they cared about the bad sheep and no matter how many times a Black sheep would bow down and praise the devilish sheep, the bad sheep wouldn’t like one Black sheep any more than he liked another Black sheep!

The Black sheep believed the shepherd would protect them.

When the fox came around without the shepherd knowing it, the smart Black sheep wouldn’t just stand there to get eaten up. Or when the wolf lurked around the flock, the Black sheep didn’t invite the wolf to the sheep dinner table or give the wolf a front row seat at the sheep’s place of worship.

The smart Black sheep would fight the fox and the wolf! The smart Black sheep knew that if you want to live, if you want to survive and if you want to prosper sometimes a sheep has to swing instead of always trying to sing his way out of trouble!

Can you imagine a sheep getting away from a fox or a wolf by singing “Sheep Shall Overcome”?

Hell no!

In the Biblical book of Matthew, 11th Chapter, God told the people when you and your community are being attacked you might have to save yourself by using “violence”. When devilish sheep try to take everything from the Black sheep, when they try to take away the sheep’s right to vote, take away the sheep’s affordable health care, take away the sheep’s affordable sheep housing sometimes the sheep will have to use force to take back what belongs to them.

Or, you can believe in the shepherd and protect yourself the way the shepherd suggests you can take care of yourself.

Now, any good sheep can recognize the voice of the shepherd. Let’s say that voice can be verbal or it may be printed in an opinion column or an editorial, for instance.

The enemies of the Black sheep can tell you over and over again that the shepherd that they designate is the “leader” of the flock. They may look like a Black sheep, have the wool color of a Black sheep and they may even talk or write like a Black sheep could write.

But again, the sheep will recognize the verbal or written voice of the shepherd.

Line up everybody you have been told is a leader of the Black sheep and see how many Black sheep will listen to them or read what they write.

If the sheep are considering opinion columns, when you take the names of the writers off, can the sheep recognize the column written by Joy Reid or Cynthia Tucker or DeWayne Wickham or Leonard Pitts or some other person you’ve been told writes for Black sheep?

Or can you read something somewhere and instantly recognize it as a column written by someone you trust, someone who has stood up for you or someone who has risked his career, his life and his livelihood by standing up for you?

I think you can. The true shepherd is the one that has the voice and the column that the Black sheep can recognize! (Buy Gantt’s book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” anywhere fine books are sold and contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net)